Architectural lighting design

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This article is about lighting design in architecture. If you are looking for lighting design in theater, visit Lighting Design.

The skyline of Singapore at night; Many buildings can be seen illuminated for aesthetic reasons.

Architectural lighting design is a field within architecture that concerns itself primarily with the illumination of architecture. It also covers the illumination of spaces such as gardens and public squares.

Prior to the 1960s, the concept of illumination in architecture was not considered to be important by many architects. This changed with the formation of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) in 1969. This created a new attitude towards the profession and raised the profile of architectural lighting design, one of the principal goals of the organisation. The organisation remained very central to North America however, until 1993 when the European Lighting Designers' Association (ELDA, later ELDA+) was formed. These two organisations are the main authorities regarding lighting design in architecture, however the International Commission on Illumination or CIE presents the reference for more technical aspects of lighting design. There are many more nationally-based organisations such as the Schweizerische Licht Gesellschaft (SLG) in Switzerland, the Association de Concepteurs Eclairage (ACE) in France, the Hellenic Illumination Committee (HIC) in Greece and the Associazione Professionisti dell'Illuminazione (APIL) in Italy .

1 Concept of lighting design
2 Media
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] Concept of lighting design

Architectural lighting design focuses on three fundamental aspects of the illumination of buildings or spaces. The first is, of course, the aesthetic appeal of a building, an aspect particularly important in the illumination of retail environments. Secondly, the ergonomic aspect: the measure of how much of a function the lighting plays. Thirdly is the energy efficiency issue to assure that light is not wasted by over-illumination, either by illuminating vacant spaces unnecessarily or by providing more light than needed for the aesthetics or the task.

Each of these three aspects is looked at in extraordinarily minute detail when the lighting designer is at work. In aesthetic appeal, the lighting designer attempts to raise the general attractiveness of the design, measure whether it should be subtly blended into the background or whether it should stand out, and assess what kind of emotions the lighting should evoke. The functional aspects of the project can encompass the need for the project to be visible (by night mostly, but also by day), the impact of daylight on the project and safety issues (glare, colour confusion etc.)

Architectural lighting design, much like architecture itself, qualifies as being neither an art nor a science, rather a mixture of both. While creative spirit is demanded of a designer, a qualified professional architectural lighting designer will generally have a good understanding of the properties of light from a scientific standpoint and of the functioning of a light fitting (known as a "luminaire" in field terminology).

[edit] Media

The profession attracts very little attention on television and radio, nor does it garner much attention in the pure architecture press. However, there are a number of magazines especially devoted to this subject. Professional Lighting Design is perhaps the most well-known, as it is the official publication of both the IALD and ELDA+ mentioned above (hence the reading material of lighting designers in both organisations) and is published in English, German, Turkish and Chinese. Other publications of note are Russia-based Illuminator, HighLight and Italy-based Luce&Design.